The US Library of Congress is to archive every public tweet made since the service started in 2006.
Do you use Twitter? If so then everything you’ve ever tweeted publically is to be archived in the US Library of Congress, from the tweet about how cute your dog is, to the tweet about the epic burrito you just had and everything in between. You’ll be in good company too, as some very notable people use Twitter.
“Important tweets in the past few years include the first-ever tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey,” said Matt Raymond, one the Library’s official bloggers. “President Obama’s tweet about winning the 2008 election, and a set of two tweets from a photojournalist who was arrested in Egypt and then freed because of a series of events set into motion by his use of Twitter.”
The tweet archive will offer an insight into the everyday lives of people through what they shared on their twitter feeds, much like the personal letters and diaries of previous centuries. A lot of it is going to be trivial fluff, but as a rich and detailed slice of life, it’s unprecedented.
Source: Ars Technica
Published: Apr 14, 2010 07:35 pm